Anthem Church

As we parent, relate, and grow together as the family of God, the implementation of law is a necessary component of developing our legacy. We need God’s law to guide, inform, and protect us from our sinful hearts and desires, especially when we are younger in age and faith. However, maturity comes when we realize that the law, as helpful as it is, will never produce true heart change. Our lives ar...

When the hardships of life shake our core, what spills forth from us in word and deed? Whatever we have been filling ourselves with, whether helpful or harmful. The grace extended to us by God through faith in Jesus Christ redeems our past and secures our future. However, what we often neglect is the powerful grace accessible to us, the empowering of the Holy Spirit to face life today. As parents,...

This week we take a closer look at our identity as we strive to leave a gospel legacy. We are reminded of the dire importance of remembering our identity as the beloved sons and daughters of God, loved eternally through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the legacy we are to live out of and pass on to our children, both biological and spiritual. Any other legacy, fabricated by our own sinful desires,...

As we begin a new series on parenting and family, we are reminded of the importance of stewarding the mandates given to us by our loving God. We have been given a legacy in Jesus through our adoption as sons and daughters. We reflect this legacy as we honor the covenants that are made with us (to God, through marriage, to each other, etc.), and we multiply this legacy as we share the love of Chris...

As we conclude our journey through the book of Judges, we are reminded of the stark differences between genuine and counterfeit Christianity. While true, joy-filled obedience to God produces life and flourishing, shallow religion and half-hearted worship lead to compromise, pain, and destruction. As fallen as we are, our merciful Father is still ever faithful to us, his people. With Christ as our...

Samson’s story, while filled with great feats and exciting narratives, is frequently tempered with defeat and loss. It is a story of highs and lows: a man lifted by God in strength, but also made weak by the same God who granted that power. Samson’s story is a lesson in humility for all of us. God’s grace, poured out onto us undeserving sinners, brings us to our knees, our hearts brimming with gra...

All of us have limitations. As much as we desire differently, we as humans are finite in our ability to fully understand, be present in, and change our circumstances. Our inability to know all produces anxiety, our failure to be be everywhere and do everything well produces regret, and our weakness and powerlessness to control all aspects of our life produces anger. These limitations, however, are...

Redemption is defined in a variety of ways in our culture, and usually pertains to specifics of rehabilitation and recovery. However, we see throughout Scripture, and particularly here in the story of Jephthah, that God’s redemption is far more powerful and complete. Not a moment of our lives is wasted: our unsuccessful plans, our unexpected pain, the untruthful accusations against us, and the unf...

What do you value? What makes someone or something worthy in your eyes? As we examine the first half of Jephthah’s story in the bible, we see the timeless truth about perceived value: it is fickle, subjective, and almost always tailored to our changing wants and desires. Inherent value, conversely, is fixed upon us, endowed upon each person by our Creator, and cannot be taken away from us. Because...

Israel, yet again caught up in pursuing what is right in their own eyes, becomes an example of apostasy in this week’s text. Although our God is gracious, loving, and slow to anger, he is equally just and holy, and will not tolerate the blatant abuse of his grace. Such indifference towards sin was a hallmark of Israel in the book of Judges, and lest we take care to examine our own lives, we could...

What can we learn from five short verses in the book of Judges? Tola and Jair, both Judges of Israel, lived different lives, experienced different upbringings, and had very different backgrounds. However, they both inherited a sinful Israel, and were themselves sinners. For all of this mess, both men avoided clinging to second hand issues and lead in a manner pleasing to God. As we find ourselves...

No sermon we will ever hear will be more important than one in which we are blessed to hear the glory of the gospel on full display. We are new creations in Christ, but often times our lives feel a bit off, as if we are missing a key ingredient in living the abundant life promised to us. The second installment of this message provides us with detail and instruction regarding one of the simplest, y...

So many of us are prone to getting caught up in what we do (activity) that it inversely taints who we think we are (identity). But the gospel informs a different way. By focusing first on who God is and what he's done, we're able to see who we really are in Christ. When we truly submit to the realities of the gospel, then this new identity orients what we do!

The start of a new year can stir a grand mix of emotions. Some of us feel hopeful and optimistic for the year to come, while others might tend more towards nostalgia, and in some cases, an unhealthy longing for the past. In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon admonishes his readers to seek wisdom, and not to dwell on the former days. Jesus Christ has offered us newness of life, forgiveness of sin, h...

No sermon we will ever hear will be more important than one in which we are blessed to hear the glory of the gospel on full display. We are new creations in Christ, but often times our lives feel a bit off, as if we are missing a key ingredient in living the abundant life promised to us. While the journey is never easy or painless, we find deepest joy in our Christian life as we submit to one anot...

As is often true in the book of Judges, we are not the victims in this story. We are Abimelech. We are hurt, maligned, mistreated, and disrespected, and instead of remembering God, remembering his goodness, remembering that he too suffered just as we have, we strive for the position of security, comfort, or approval that we believe will fill the void in our hearts and lives. We must understand thi...

How often in life are we just trying to move on? Maybe we’re ready to move on from a hard job, a hard parenting season, or a hard marriage. Today, marks the fourth and last sermon on Gideon in our Judges series. In the previous weeks, we hopefully learned that our decisions should be made with God at the center (not fear, comfort, or pride), and we can be confident and obedient to those decisions...

Gideon is faced with what is an impossible situation. He is going to battle against an army of 135,000 with only 300 men. How do we respond when we are faced with an impossible situation? We look to this story of Gideon to see how he puts his faith into action and trusts in God's plan, God's provision, and God's power.

At first glance, it'd be easy to fault Gideon for having weak faith. After all, God had already given him a sign by consuming the meat and unleavened cakes (6:21) and 'clothing him with the Holy Spirit,' (6:34). But God's positive response to Gideon came free of reprove or condemnation. He willingly condescended himself by giving Gideon the signs through a fleece… A FLEECE! In so doing, we get a b...

We belong to God, which means all of our decisions belong to God. Therefore, calling is about unqualified people bringing every choice into dependence on Jesus, which qualifies them to be used for other’s deliverance through Jesus.

What are you worshipping? Are you worshipping the idols in your life, those things that you place before God, or does your worship focus rightly and entirely on God? Remember, loved ones, your worship of God will last, your idols will not. So, reflect on this-this week, what are you worshipping?

What does God tell us through Deborah? For starters, she is the only female judge in the Book of Judges. This story, as much as any in the Bible, gives us a glimpse into the role God has for women in His kingdom.

Only one verse? Yes, just one. The scripture tells us a lot in one tiny verse this week. Most of us are going to be known for one verse lives, sung for one verse worth of heroics, and experience one verse kind of excitement. The sooner you embrace that possibility, the sooner you will stop glory-plotting and start glory-plodding.

God uses a man named Ehud to remind us this week that we're never too messy to receive God's grace. Messy grace means messy people, but sanitized grace comes with sanitized expectations of sanitized people in sanitized circumstances. Grace is often often messy because people are messy, we're just never too messy for grace. Remember, the cross was messy.

Given the current climate of our church, we will take a break from our Judges series and address the events of the last week head on, rather than try to tip-toe around them. Quinn Bartrug was born at 25 weeks gestation on Wednesday, September 28th and sadly passed away in the evening on September 29th. In light of all of this and all of the suffering around you or happening to you, how does God lo...